Phuket...or is it myamar/Bangla?

Am now in Miri,trying to catch a 2 pm flight back kuching but flight apparently full and overbooked,so have 4 hours to "burn" before my 6 pm flight.At the business lounge at least can hook up to the internet. Has indeed been a hectic week for me,flew to Kl last Wednesday,spent few days (as usual) meeting up with people.Then me and the family took an air asia flight to Phuket for a short 3 nites holidays. First time in Phuket, a real wonderful place to relax and do a bit of 'worthless' shopping. We came in on a Sunday, then loitered around the various shopping markets at Patong beach area and what struck me was that all the shops were manned by either Bangladeshis,Myanmarese or Nepalese. Where were the Thais? Honestly i dont understand this curious phenomena ,Thailand as i perceived is quite an overpopulated country and surely there must be ample hands willing to ply their trade at souvenir shops or markets.The usual junk ended as my shopping haulage ,T-shirts(which i know i will not wear later!!!), cheap DVDs(bought a Benny Hill collection) and the usual little trinkets. Monday though was more exciting as we went on a cruise to Phi Phi island, it was a full day programme ,did a bit of amateur snorkeling,had a good lunch at the island and again a bunch of T-shirts landed as unnecessary possession.Phuket is indeed a wonderful place as i imagined ,clean and has nice beaches to savour.Tuesday we planned to take a Tut tut ride to a tourist gems centre and henceforth to witness the sunset at Cape Promthep.Thankfully no urge by the significant other to buy these overpriced "trinkets" but the awful thing though was our Tut tut driver abandoned us at that place and didnt even bother to collect his dues and left me reminiscing what was the sunset would have been like at Cape Promthep.The gems centre true to Thai hospitality kindly offered us a free ride back to the hotel.At Phuket airport on Wednesday i cant help noticing long queues of foreign tourists at the domestic counters. Lo!! Bangkok airport was closed that day as was informed being invaded by demonstrators, ha this was the answer to my earlier curiosity .My friend when i text him on the influx of Nepalese in Phuket,as he said the Thais possibly too busy demonstrating against the government.Of course it"s not true but then i cant help pondering on the ironic ring to that explanation.
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